It is well known in motor vehicles to have a hood which carries a striker. It is also well known to have a latch assembly mounted to the vehicle for latching and unlatching the hood. A conventional latch assembly includes a housing having a throat for receiving the striker. Typically a fork-bolt lever is pivotally mounted to the housing for movement between a latched position for capturing the striker in the housing throat to latch the hood and an unlatched position for releasing the striker to unlatch the hood. The latch assembly also typically includes a detent lever for selectively engaging the fork-bolt lever in the latched position. A cable is attached to the detent lever and is routed to the hood release handle mounted adjacent a vehicle driver. The driver pulls the handle which pulls the cable causing the detent lever to disengage from the fork-bolt lever to release the striker and unlatch the hood.
It is becoming increasingly common in a global economy to produce vehicles having a left-drive version and a right-drive version. A conventional latch assembly can be made in a left-hand version and a right-hand version by manufacturing and assembling a different housing, fork-bolt and detent lever. The prior art also recognizes that a housing having a central throat may be used with a left-drive or right-drive vehicle. However, redundant manufacturing operations must be performed to produce duplicate left-hand and right-hand mounting holes in the housing for pivot pins to support a fork-bolt lever and a detent lever. The requirement of different components and different or redundant manufacturing and assembling operations adds time and costs to producing latch assemblies.
The present invention provides many advantages over the prior art.